


The Roamers Series : Prologue

by somewhereinwestelizabeth



Category: Red Dead Redemption
Genre: Inspired by Red Dead Redemption, Pre-Video Game: Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018), RDR2, The Roamers Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 13:52:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17346383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somewhereinwestelizabeth/pseuds/somewhereinwestelizabeth
Summary: Ruby Gallagher is the sister of a notorious Irish outlaw. With the help of her brother's best friend, they emigrate for America in hopes of leaving the Gallagher reputation in the dust for good. But as they soon find out, leaving your past behind doesn't mean the Devil will go away.





	The Roamers Series : Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! This here be the prologue for our fan fiction we have running on Instagram. It’s the origin of our Red Dead Online characters, Shooter Johnson (Thomas O'Sullivan) and Ruthless Ruby (Ruby Gallagher).
> 
> Feel free to follow us on Instagram to follow along and see some great in-game captures!  
> @ruthlessrubygallagher  
> @shooterjohnson_

* * *

 

_**IRELAND, 1882 - 1894** _

**S** ully and Trigger were one in the same. Brothers by different blood. Their last names were about the only thing they didn’t share. Had they only met sooner in those dirty side streets of Ireland, maybe things could have been different.

Thomas O’Sullivan didn’t have much growing up. Samuel changed that, gave him most everything he wanted. Even gave him a name. Sully. At 18, The Roamers became Thomas Sully’s family. Among the pack, a quiet, polite boy of the same age named Eddie Gallagher. He could shoot his Da’s Colt Revolver better than any boy in Ireland, they say. The name Trigger fit him like a glove. Samuel'd found him just a few months before Sully. Just so happened that Trigger'd lived only a few streets away from Sully’s Mam... Not surprisin'. That neighbourhood had more poor children than rats. 

But that was before The Roamers. Samuel didn’t much like them talking about the time before.

‘’Nothin’ isn’t somethin’ worth yappin’ about,’’ he’d say, ‘’We be yer family now. 'nd family come first, yea?’’

Twelve years. Twelve years spent doing the Devil’s work. The food in their bellies and the clothes off their backs, all from bloodshed. The rush of each job helped focus their minds, the running afterwards helped clear them. But the guilt never washed away. Eddie talked secretly of leaving. Thomas had found a girl a few towns back. Seems outstaying your welcome had its benefits. But fear drowned any plans of abandoning The Roamers.

’’We can't ever break the chain,’’ warned Eddie’s younger brother, Ash, who caught them late one night in the midst of their confiding.

It would be the last time Eddie and Thomas would speak of life outside the gang, together.

They found them. Eddie’s Mam was knowing of it. The letter she wrote six months back, she be speaking of her fear that time were running out for her son. Their last robbery had been a big’un.

‘’We be bitin' off more 'an we can chew, Samuel,’’ worried Sully. The job was a success, but his uneasiness remained. They lasted one more week.

Samuel. Eddie. A new recruit. All three bodies on the glass and bullet-strewn floor of their bootleg bar. A second new member of The Roamers was captured. Thomas and ‘Kid Gallagher’ Ash escaped with Eddie’s body, leaving behind a swarm of police. An unmarked grave between the trees, some twenty miles away from the ambush, lay the body of Eddie Gallagher… In the hands of Thomas O’Sullivan lay the Colt Revolver. Through his grief and anger, Sully knew this was his only chance. Without a leader, there wouldn’t be time for the remaining gang members to worry about stragglers.

‘’Ya can’t run from your actions, Sully,’’ threatened Ash, ‘’The Devil will always outrun you. And if he don’ find ya… I swear by God, I will.’’

But he ran anyway. And ran. Then ran some more. Johanna was still there, waiting, like she said she would be in her last letter.

‘’I don’ got much time to explain. Marry me, Johanna Dhalles. Forget me wicked ways. Me old life be over now. If I can be saved, marry me today.’’

Before he could bury his past for good, he knew he had to go. Just once. The familiarity of the roads flooded his memory. Twelve years and still not a stone in the road was different. The broken down lane house was a hop, skip away from his Mam’s, just like Eddie had said. As he passed the decrepit place of his upbringing, Sully wondered if she was even still alive. The blackened exterior of the Gallagher residence seemed to scream out the grief held within its walls. Behind the sobbing Mrs. Gallagher, she stood, her eyes a mixture of anger, resilient yet defeated. As if the weight of Destiny sat on her shoulders. They were Eddie’s eyes.

‘’You throw that damned cursed gun into the ocean and don’t you ever speak of it again!’’ screamed the grieving mother.

The redheaded woman looked on over Mrs. Gallagher’s shoulder. She followed him for miles after he’d left the house, mostly in silence. Being around her felt like being with Trigger. He couldn’t bear look her in the eyes again.

‘’Me brother… he were a good man. F’only I’d been a trife older… Would’ve taken Samuel O’Driscoll to where the sun don’ shine meself.’’

Thomas handed her the Colt Revolver. He owed the Gallaghers that final loyalty. For the man who had changed him. Now, he could give what he had left to the woman who would change him again.


End file.
